Mere Dost Picture Abhi Baaki Hai (2012) Review by Shivom Oza – Mere Dost Picture Achchi Nahin Hai

1/5 Stars

9-years-in-the-making, the film is about a disgruntled duo of a struggling actor and an aspiring director who are trying their level best to make a feature film. However, they face the strangest of odds on their way to become successful in film world.

Amar Joshi (Suniel Shetty) is a boy from Benares who pursues direction at a filmmaking school in London. Wanting to return to India to make a film on a rape victim called ‘Cheekh’, he approaches his friend Suraj (Rajpal Yadav) to get an entry into Bollywood. Upon reaching Mumbai, he realizes that making a film won’t be as easy as he reckoned. He faces weirdo characters; superstitious, foul-mouthed, debauched, sex-starved, corrupt, perverted and some of them, plain dumb. There are cameo appearances by Suresh Menon (a badly stereotyped South Indian music director), Deepak Qazir (an impulsive spirituality-struck producer), Avtar Gill (another sex-starved producer with a fixation for item numbers), Razzak Khan (as the crotch-tugging, foul-mouthed producer gave us some of the most disgusting moments in the history of Indian cinema) and many more. Udita Goswami as an established actress Mohini and Mumait Khan as a gangster’s moll also lurch around in the film. That the film finally gets made or not forms the crux of the story, not that you care!

Awful, even keeping in mind that the film has been in the making for almost a decade, there is certainly no excuse for mediocrity. Suniel Shetty and Rajpal Yadav ham through their roles. They have to pretend throughout the film that they aren’t really interested in making the film ‘Cheekh’. However, they look like they aren’t interested in making the film ‘Mere Dost Picture Abhi Baaki Hai’ as well. Rajpal plays a guy who cannot speak English properly. Hence, he mispronounces words which end up meaning something else from what was intended and yes, embarrassing to pits. Sexual innuendos are rampant throughout this film. They don’t bring about hilarity at all. In fact, they are supremely cringe-worthy. Other ‘stars’ in the film include Udita Goswami, Mumait Khan, Shawar Ali, Shyan Munshi etc. Even veteran actors such as Om Puri and Neena Gupta are hideous in their badly written characters.

It is so ironic that the film which spoke about the difficulties of filmdom, itself was in the cans for nine long years. Yet, after watching the film, it does not seem surprising at all. Such inane writing merits no acknowledgement. Even the music of the film is yawn-inducing. Director-writer Rajnish Thakur can probably keep revisiting this film to learn why a film doesn’t work.

Haggard storyline, lacklustre dialogues, annoying music and tired performances, make this film a terrible watch. You should not veer towards the ticket-window for this one.

Disappointing to the core! (First Posted in MSN)

Shivom Oza